Francesco Giusti / A.H.

_Different typologies of straw and concrete houses encountered at the human settlement VIÑA DEL MAR, near the southern peruvian city of Tacna, few miles before the border with Chile.November 2013, Perù._

In Perù, informal settlements emerge from the construction of straw houses in the desert under poverty and precarious conditions. Straw houses, the only material that enables communities to settle in the territory, apart from offering shelter, have become a strategy for city making. Housing is either a workshop or a store, a contribution to the urban fabric; it also changes its functions according to the needs of dwellers; housing expands as the neighborhood densifies, transforming its typology (from house to group home) or nature (rural to urban) when the settlement changes from village to neighborhood. The house expands as the city grows; both elements transform each other, giving dynamism to urban fabric, as well as ability to evolve.